


Synthesis

by kagapop



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Blood and Violence, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Minor Gueira/Meis (Promare), POV Alternating, Past Galo Thymos/Aina Ardebit, Potentially Maybe Sexual Content Involving Magic Plant Tentacles (i'm sorry), past fake relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-09
Updated: 2020-04-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:33:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22981048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kagapop/pseuds/kagapop
Summary: Galo Thymos has heard just about every tall tale and scary campfire story there is to be told about the woods beyond Promepolis.So,surelya courageous, amazing, and totally experienced park ranger such as himself should have been fully prepared to brave them.As it turns out, nature had other plans.Or:AU in which the burnish are instead guardians to a forest of spirits.
Relationships: Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos
Comments: 18
Kudos: 73





	1. Dahlia

**Author's Note:**

> In regards to the _Past Fake Relationship_ tag:  
> It's not a romantic thing so much as a _they-were-mutually-using-each-other-for-plot-things-under-the-guise-of-a-relationship_ thing. Despite that, the characters involved are a major squick/NOTP for a lot of people as a pairing, so I still wanted to put _some_ kind of warning out there as best as I could without giving away too many spoilers!! ~~But yes it does involve Kray.~~

Somewhere, distantly, a voice tells Galo Thymos not to do what he's about to.

But that doesn't matter, because the voice isn't his, and he turned off his phone’s earpiece about twenty minutes ago. Whatever words Aina has for him can't stop him now...not that they could even if he _did_ hear her.

He shifts the weight of his backpack into a more comfortable position. Emergency medical supplies and protein bars audibly shuffle inside. When he advances forward, leaves crunch beneath his boots as a reminder that autumn has taken its claim on these woods.

The wall before him doesn't look nearly as imposing as rumors have made it out to be. He's heard all of the variations... _"A dark, wooded fortress." "A barrier of trees with faces, haunted by those who have been lost within."_ The nonsensical descriptions could go on forever. There was a time when Galo thought those stories were cool, especially the ones that managed to send chills down his spine.

Now, however, they only feel like a letdown. Maybe it's because after all of the folklore and make-believe people have _actually_ started disappearing into these woods. And maybe it's also because the line of trees in front of him don't give off the same scary vibes the stories led him to expect. In all honesty, they just look kinda dead. Dead trees aren’t as scary when you’re in your twenties as they are when you’re six.

Scary looking or not, the fact that there have been so many disappearances remains unchanged. It started with just the bordering town. Certain people were seen venturing in but never came back. The rescue teams who went in after them had all recalled a heavy fog, and then wound up right back where they entered, even after walking a straight line. When someone tried to descend from a helicopter, the recollection of fog was the same when they found themselves on the outskirts.

But Galo isn't about to let some stupid fog trick him. The people who _haven't_ come out of this place yet still need saving, and so he's going to save them. Simple.

Though, it would have been nice if his friends would have backed him up on this instead of telling him to stay put and let the _"big shots"_ handle it.

Galo has been a park ranger for like…three whole months now. He knows how to get around some trees. Granted, this isn't the park he's used to, and the trees are admittedly a lot taller and more populated here. Still, they're not _scary._

He marches through the fallen leaves, mindful of the exposed roots and broken branches that grow more frequent as he nears the boundary.

It's when he passes beneath two greyish trees, branches curved into something reminiscent of an archway, that he admits to himself there may be a creepy factor to this after all.

It doesn’t help that there’s an immediate chill when he enters the forest. Galo isn't sure if he's a believer of ghosts, but the icy breath of the woods brushing his neck just might make him one. He whips his head around, a hand readied over the handgun at his side. The only sight awaiting is the open field he'd left behind.

It's probably just the wind.

That being said, he wouldn't hesitate to fight the wind.

He eases off of the weaponry _for now_ and ventures further into the forest. It's nothing like Promepolis Municipal Park, with its flourishing plant life and fauna. This place is dark and gloomy, lacking in the vibrant reds and yellows that Galo would expect to see this time of year. Everything looks like the life has been sucked out of it- from the dead, fallen leaves on the ground to the twisted, greyish vines that constrict the trees. He's suddenly grateful that he has the privilege of watching over a forest that's so much more lively than _this_ for his day job.

An eerie silence hangs over him as he continues onward. It makes every subtle step and breath stand out like clanging pots and pans. It's distracting at first, but the observation is quickly disregarded. He has people to save, dammit.

Even so, it goes on for quite some time. The sound of his breathing. The crackling of branches as he pushes them out of his way. There's no real path to follow here, so he keeps to a straight line as best as he can and strikes small notches in the trees with his pocket knife as a guide.

That is until he registers a loud _snap_ from behind.

The chill grows stronger as he turns around in search of the source. Just as with the entrance, he doesn't _see_ anything when he looks behind him.

But he feels it. He hears it. Another crackling of someone, or some _thing_ stepping through the forest debris.

He reaches for the handgun again, but something lashes at his wrist before he can grab the weapon. A warmth trickles down his arm, and he only belatedly realizes that it's his own blood when he sees red trailing over the _thing_ that's now coiled around his limb.

He doesn't know what said _thing_ is at first. It's long and rope-like but smooth to the touch. Cold. Not alive, so not a snake, yet it tightens like a reptile claiming its prey. When it tugs, a red glow pulses along its length in stark contrast with their surroundings.

Galo tugs back, fighting its hold on him. He grabs onto the thing with his free hand but it only pulls harder, this time with a force that rips his feet off the ground. With a curse, Galo is flung into a nearby tree. Branches scrape at his skin as he slides against the trunk to the floor, but that's not the thing he's concerned with.

There's a voice from the source of the vine-like thing.

_"How the hell'd this guy get past the fog?"_

Fog? Galo hasn't even encountered the rumored fog yet.

 _"Dunno. Just get rid of him,"_ comes a second voice. Both of them sound almost human in tone, but there's something distorted about their sound that Galo can't quite place.

But maybe that's because his head just crashed into three feet of wood.

Despite the spinning of his head, Galo pushes himself back to his feet. This time when he reaches for his gun, the tendrils don't stop him, but he finds that there's no gun there to grab.

_"Lose something?"_

Beyond the space he'd just been thrown across, another snakey thing rises into view. This one is blue, but now that it's not busy curling around Galo's flesh, he can get a better view of the thing.

It's poised like a snake ready to strike, while its tail-end end drags along the forest floor in a tangled mess, fading to a purplish hue among the others of its kind. Here and there, small protrusions make themselves known. Thorns. Leaves. All pulsing with the same glow.

"Vines?" Galo says aloud. But it’s not just vines. Far off, among the less vibrant trees and bushes, he can make out a glint of something like metal reflecting amid the mess of glowy color. Except the metal moves, hunched over like an animal— _two_ animals—watching him from a distance.

Then his gaze is pried away, lured by one of the voices to the end of the blue vine where his handgun dangles.

 _"Nice detective work!"_ Is the last thing he hears before something strikes him at the back of the neck. The forest goes black in an instant, and Galo doesn’t even feel the floor when he goes crashing down.

* * *

Everything feels so distant when he opens his eyes again.

“G…..lo….. Gal….o…..”

He squints, sunlight and the vibrant blue of the sky assaulting his vision. The miserable, lifeless hues of the forest are nowhere to be seen. At least not from this angle.

“Galo… Galo!”

The voice sounds closer now.

There’s a pink blur above him, and he vaguely registers what’s probably a hand waving in his face.

“You’re awake!”

“M… ‘wake…” he mumbles in confirmation.

The pink gradually becomes a little more clear, and by the time his eyes are halfway open he can make out the concerned expression on Aina’s face above him.

“I’m awake?” he mumbles again. Then, without allowing her a chance to respond, he sits up, headbutting her in the process. “Those dumb plants knocked me out?!”

His roommate stumbles back a step, a hand over her now-bruised forehead. “That’s fine— _ow—_ don’t _thank_ me or anything!”

“Thank you?” He doesn’t actually know what he’s thanking her for. He doesn’t even know how he got here—sitting in the same grassy field from earlier, staring at the line of trees that border the forsaken forest _again._ He was…fighting those weird glowing vines…and then he passed out or something? He looks over his shoulder at her, and she doesn’t look worried anymore. Just kinda pissed. He points to the forest across the way. “You dragged me outta there?”

“Huh?” Aina removes her hand from her forehead and stares at it, like she’s expecting to find blood. There isn’t any. “No. I found you lying out here drooling on the grass.”

He wipes at his chin and, yup, that’s definitely drool.

“But I blacked out inside…”

“What did you _expect,_ Galo?” With a sigh, she reaches a hand out to him. He doesn’t need help standing up, but he lets her anyway. “Everyone who goes in there either goes missing or winds up like that. They see some creepy fog, then wake up outside.”

“But I _didn’t!”_ he groans. He rubs the back of his neck where he remembers being struck. No blood there either, but it’s a little sore. The blood on his arm has dried up though. How long was he lying out here? “I never even got far enough in to see the fog!”

Or…did he? One of those weird voices had asked how he’d gotten past it. There’s no way he did, though. You don’t just _overlook_ fog. It’s fucking _fog._

“They made it sound like I should have, though…”

Aina sighs. _“They_ who?”

“The weird plant voices.”

She continues to stare at him.

“There were these weird plants. They attacked me.”

“You…fought talking plants…”

“I don’t actually know if it was the plants talking? They might’ve been some kind of…monsters…with plant powers…”

“Galo.”

He pats his side then turns away from her. He marches straight for the trees when he yells, “You _bastards_ took my gun!”

_“Galo!”_

She’s hardly an obstacle with her tiny figure, but when she skids in front of him with her arms outstretched to either side, he stops in his tracks.

“You just woke up. You probably had some kind of weird hallucination from the fog.”

“There wasn’t any fog!” He stomps a foot and points past her. “I know what I saw, dammit. Your sister studies all kinds of crazy magic animals and stuff, right? And you still think my killer plant story is dumb?!”

_“Yes.”_

“Well maybe it _is_ dumb, but it’s also _real!”_ He starts to move past her, but she only gets in his way again.

“What are you _doing?”_ she demands.

“Going back in,” he says, like it should’ve been obvious.

“Can you _chill_ for one second?!” She straightens in some attempt to make herself taller against him. “I told the others where you went. Do you have any idea how worried we were? You turned off all your communications. We didn’t even know if you were still _alive_ in there, Galo.”

He freezes up at that. There's a hurt in her voice that immediately makes him feel ashamed.

Aina sighs. "Just… Please, Galo. If you want to be a hero, at least stick to _our_ territory?"

"I _do_ stick to ours. When I'm on the job." His eyes linger on the forest a moment longer, then settle back to Aina's exhausted gaze. He folds his arms. "People aren't disappearing in ours, though."

"You're still helping people."

"But who's going to help _these_ people?"

She doesn't seem to have an answer for that, as she just helplessly watches him before finally dropping her arms to her sides in defeat.

"I'm going back in there, you know."

"You're _bleeding,_ Galo," she pleads. "Just… come home. Don't do this right now."

He scrunches his face, displeased with the suggestion.

"You're not even armed," she tries again. "Come on. Get on your damned bike. We'll go home and I'll order pizza."

"Do you really think all my decisions can be influenced by _pizza?"_

He thinks she's going to say yes, but instead she offers a sheepish shrug and a, "No, but would it help…?"

He mulls it over for a moment. "...Maybe a little bit."

She smiles, soft with relief, and leads him back to where she left her own bike waiting at the edge of the field beside his.

He tries not to spend the ride home sulking over how some plants just stole his gun. Rather, he spends it debating what he can get that's _better_ than a gun for next time. A sword? That'd probably be better than a long range weapon on some killer vines, right? He's not trained to use a sword, but he did some cool poses with one in his bedroom in high school. That probably counts for… something.

Maybe a chainsaw would be more effective.

By the time they reach the apartment, Galo has gone through about twenty alternatives for plant combat. _“But maybe if I spray the axe with weed killer…”_ he theorizes aloud as Aina fusses with the ever-difficult apartment lock.

“Oh my _god,”_ she groans, either because the door is being a pain, or because she’s had to listen to Galo ramble off ridiculous battle plans for the past four flights of stairs because the elevator at their complex is broken _again._

It takes a good kick from her to get the thing open, but Galo just keeps rattling off ideas as they head inside. This isn’t different from any other day, after all.

“What if, and just hear me out...” she says, dropping her bag and helmet off on the couch, “...What if you _didn’t_ go back to fight the crazy forest monsters?”

He stares at her for a long moment. She probably thinks that he’s considering the suggestion until he says, “Okay, but _hedge trimmers.”_

She groans, turns away, and takes out her phone to order the pizza. It takes the whole of the delivery wait, a few pies, and a cheesy so-bad-it’s-funny horror flick later before he’s completely dropped the subject, and eventually Galo falls asleep on the couch, and Aina can relax knowing he’s not being strangled by evil weeds for the night.

Morning, however, may be another story.

* * *

Galo wakes with his hair plastered to his forehead and the smell of coffee wafting from the kitchen. That’s weird. Usually he’s the one to make coffee in the morning.

He sits up to find Aina sitting at the counter, a toaster waffle in her mouth as she scrolls through something on her phone. He hangs his arms over the back cushions and yawns. “You’re never up before me.”

“Wanted to make sure you didn’t run off and do something stupid before I woke up.”

He sticks out his tongue. She returns the gesture.

“I’ve got night patrol today, but you’d _better_ be here and breathing when I get home,” she says around a bite of waffle.

“I’ll be breathing!” Galo assures her, but she sends him a sharp look that screams _‘That’s not enough, idiot.’_ He sighs, loud and dramatic, and slides off the couch to get some breakfast of his own. “I’ll come home tonight, alright? I promise.” He swings the fridge door open. The inside is mostly home to a bunch of leftovers— be it take-out or from the few times they actually cooked up a real meal within the past week. He goes for some leftover chicken alfredo, because _why not?_ Reserving certain foods for certain times of the day always seemed silly to him.

“You’d better,” Aina mumbles.

He tosses the container into the microwave with a grin. “Don’t be such a mom.”

“Then don’t be such a _kid.”_ Despite herself, she smiles a little.

Before Galo can finish heating his pasta, Aina’s already devoured her waffle and has her bag slung over her shoulder. “I’ll see you tonight. I’m meeting up with Heris before work,” she says. She fills a paper cup with coffee before starting for the door.

“Oh! Cool! Ask her if she knows anything about plant monsters!”

"I won't.” She smiles, waves, and closes the door on her way out.

Galo frowns at said door while the microwave timer sounds off behind him. Not a moment after he fetches his leftovers, his phone _pings_ with a new text. He has to shuffle through the throw pillows on the couch to actually find the thing, but eventually he figures out who the notification is from.

**LUCIA:** a little birdy told me you found somethin weird in the woods yesterday

 **LUCIA:** spill the deets buddy

 **LUCIA:** was it real or did you eat a bad mushroom off the floor

Rather than be offended by her lack of confidence, Galo grins at the messages. If Aina didn't want him getting help with the crazy ghost vines, maybe she shouldn't have gone and told _Lucia Fex_ of all people. Aina's sister isn't the only one who's dabbled in weird magic affairs.

**ME:** I can tell you in person after work!

 **LUCIA:** should i have popcorn ready for this

 **ME:** Hell yeah!

He scarfs down his lunch-for-breakfast at near-inhuman speed. It’s a strange sensation that guides him through the rest of his morning routine after that. Galo has always been excited to go to work. The park is his home away from home, where the rustling of leaves and trickling of a creak could always put him at ease even when he has to spend the day scolding some dumb kids for littering or tresspassing the off-limits areas.

Enforcing the law and general park rules aside, his job is _fun._ To him at least. Every class on a field trip or guest who wants to know more about the wildlife makes the day all the more worthwhile to him. Even if the entire park _was_ created by hand in an effort to draw in tourists, the plants and animals there are still real, and it feels like a natural escape from the surrounding city when you’re there. He loves it, and he loves to share that love with everyone who comes through.

And yet, this morning, none of that usual excitement is here to fuel him. Instead, as he drives his bike into the west entrance’s parking lot, all he can think of are dying, grey trees suffocated by malicious, glowing vines.

It’s not that he’s in a particularly bad mood over it. Not like he was last night, anyway. Moreso, he’s just anxious to get through his shift and get to Lucia’s place. If anyone’s gonna know how to fight magic plants, it’s probably her.

He sprints into the visitor center, as though some hurried footsteps might affect the flow of time as they do his physical speed. There’s already a group of school kids gathered inside, all huddled around a diorama of the massive city park off to the side of the room. One of his fellow rangers stands among the group, adjusting his glasses as he rattles off the script that goes with the beginnings of any standard tour. The kids don’t look too excited, which is a shame. Galo would be over there getting them psyched _way_ better than Remi appears to be managing. It’s almost insulting that Ignis hasn’t just made Galo the one and only official tour guide by now.

But alas, that’s not his job today, as much as it would have made for a great distraction.

He clocks in and parts the double doors to the gravel sidewalk outside. Instantly he’s feeling a little better, with the park’s trees ahead to greet him as they always do, adorned with the warm colors of fall. A squirrel darts out of his path as he marches forward, but he only makes it about ten steps beyond that before something clamps down on his head.

Galo reaches up to pry a large hand out of his hair, to no avail.

“Where do you think you’re going, rookie?” Varys Truss stands over him, a grin clear as day as he holds Galo hostage from his destination. If he wanted, he could easily lift Galo off the ground like this. Galo’s just grateful he doesn’t.

“Ignis had me patrolling the lake trail the last few days.” Galo drops his arms to his sides, but Varys doesn’t relent his grip. 

“And today’s another day.” While he doesn’t lift him off the ground, he does successfully spin Galo on his heel to face a different trail completely. “You’re on Jungle Trail duty today, kid.”

Galo doesn’t even think Varys is old enough to be calling him a “kid.” Regardless, he huffs and glares up at his towering, bulky figure. “That just leads to that playground no one ever touches.”

Varys finally releases him with a laugh. “Not anymore! We caught some teens vandalizing and littering the place yesterday while you were out playing adventurer in the real woods.”

“I wasn’t _playing!_ People are going missing out there!”

“We may be officers, but we ain’t got that kind of authority, rookie.” He pats Galo’s shoulder with heavy weight. “Stick to one buncha trees at a time, hero. We need your help here too, y’know.”

Typically, Galo would let himself get distracted by those last words. He’s only been here a few months, and as confident as _he_ is in his abilities, everyone else still calls him things like “rookie” and “newbie.” It’s rare to be told that he’s needed, even if it _is_ just meant to deter him from running off and trying to save the world.

Still, reluctantly, he marches down the path to the playground. The trail itself is nice. There’s a cool tree with some weird roots that kinda reminds him of a dress draping along the ground, and care is still put into maintaining the flowering bushes and all that. Still, he’s not sure he’s seen a single soul outside of park staff wander this way since he started the job. A new, larger playground was added to the opposite end of the park a while back, and this one has apparently been abandoned ever since.

It shows, too. The paint is so faded on the equipment that Galo can’t even determine if the slide used to be blue or green. When he gets there he does a lap around the area. Some sections are roped off with caution tape, and he can see where spots of climbing equipment were hastily painted over in attempt to hide whatever crude drawings were made there. That aside, he doesn’t see any litter in sight for the time being, so he figures this is probably going to be a pretty dull shift.

If he keeps walking down the trail it’ll eventually split off into others, one of which will circle back to the entrance. He’s finally got the whole place mapped out, which he thinks is very impressive, considering that this place _almost_ compares in size to a certain New York City park. He decides to do a bit of strolling along the path, sticking close to the area and _hoping_ to at least find a lost guest that he can help out.

Three hours in and the most conversation he’s had thus far is scolding a bird for trying to make a nest out of his hair.

He’s about ready to take out his walkie talkie and demand he get stationed somewhere more lively when finally, _finally_ he spots another form of human life.

As he circles around to the playground for the fourth time, he spots a young woman huddled over a crinkled-up park map. Nothing could scream _“I’m lost”_ more than the way she lifts her head to look in either direction before sticking her nose back to the paper.

He approaches with a wave. “Looks like you could use some help!”

She jumps at the sound of his voice. He hears a tearing of paper and stops in his tracks, hand frozen in the air. The girl looks over her shoulder at him, past her wildly fluffy, auburn hair while her shaky hands clutch at the now-torn map.

“I’m sorry!” He takes a step back this time. “I just thought you looked lost! I mean, you’re lost right? I can give you directions!”

She looks from him to her torn map, then back. Nervous green eyes study him for a long moment before she speaks. “The…the gardens?”

He waits for clarification, but she doesn’t offer any. “Uh… I mean, the whole park is kinda a garden…?”

She slowly lowers the map and turns around to face him, though she’s broken eye contact. “R-Right… But I was told there’s an area with a lot of flowers and topiaries? I heard that maybe the dahlias would still be in bloom, and I thought I’d see them while I was passing through, so…”

“Oh!” Galo claps his fist against his palm when he registers what she’s referring to. “You’re nowhere close!”

Her shoulders sink at that.

“You wanna head to the opposite end of the park! Do you know where the zoo is? It’s the entrance closest to that. I can show ya, if you want—”

“That’s okay!” she squeaks. “I actually passed the zoo before. I think I know how to get back!”

“Really? You walked right past the topiaries,” Galo laughs. “You sure you don’t need help getting there? It’s a long walk. You said you were passing through— do you gotta be somewhere important?”

“Um…”

He watches her gaze fall to the ground, and he quickly backtracks. “I wasn’t trying to be nosy! But, hey, if you want some good food on your way through, there’s a great Italian joint right by the zoo. If you’re traveling, you _can’t_ leave the city without trying it! The food’s cheap, too!”

Her lips quirk into a softer expression. “I’ll look into it. Thank you.”

“Sure thing! And here…” he motions for her to hand over the map. When she does, he tries his best to hold the ripped parts together. “...I don’t know which way you came, but this trail here is the easiest way to get there, got it?”

She nods as he points along the paths on the paper. “Right… Thank you, again.”

He grins as he hands it back. “Safe travels to wherever you’re going!”

She smiles, but there’s something off about it. Almost…sad. “You be careful, too,” she says, voice just above a whisper.

“Huh?”

She scurries past him before he can reflect on her words any further, but they stick with him throughout the day. A warning? A threat? A simple word of advice? But it was weird, right? He’s not crazy for thinking that was a weird manner of parting ways, _right?_

Even as he clocks out and reports that, _no, there were no troublemaking teens and the playground was just as boring as ever,_ the uneasy look on that girl’s face refuses to leave his thoughts alone. By the time he makes it to Lucia’s, his energy is way off balance again.

He leans his head against her front door and presses the doorbell three times. When she opens it, he doesn’t move. She rolls a sour candy on her tongue as she takes in his pathetic-looking state from below.

“What’s got you all mopey?”

“Some plants stole my gun and Aina wouldn’t let me chase after them and some weird-but-nice girl at the park might be trying to tell me I’m gonna die?”

She crunches down on the candy before turning around and walking further inside. “Kay. Just close the door on your way in.”

“Kay,” he mumbles. He follows her inside, to where she _actually_ has a bowl of popcorn ready on the couch.

She plucks it up from the cushions and plops herself down, legs criss-crossed. "I didn't get snacks ready for a sob story, did I?"

 _"No,"_ he whines, "It's a really cool story," he says, less than convincing in his delivery.

"Mhm," she hums and slowly lifts a fistful of popcorn to her mouth.

Galo takes a seat beside her. "Okay, so, I went into the forest. I kept waiting to find that weird fog everyone talks about, right? But I never saw any! The trees didn’t even look like they wanted to eat me!”

Lucia squints at him. As she does, a rat crawls up from between the couch cushions and onto her shoulder. It settles there and watches intently as Galo goes on about how not-scary the trees were. By the time he gets to the crazy attack-vines he’s up from the couch again, gesturing wildly with his arms in what’s probably supposed to be a reenactment of the whole struggle.

“—and then BAM, something smacks me right in the neck and suddenly I’m on the floor outside the place trying to convince Aina I didn’t dream it all up!”

Lucia and the rat watch him carefully. She didn’t even eat that much popcorn, but Galo figures that’s because his story was just that riveting.

“So, you didn’t dream it, then?”

Galo’s slumps his shoulders with a long, loud groan. “I thought you’d be all for helping me!”

“Wait, I’m helping you now?”

“Yeah! You’re gonna help me figure out a way to fight those nasty plant freaks!”

She tilts her head, eyes wandering off somewhere in thought.

Meanwhile, Galo stares at the rodent on her shoulder and finally asks what a normal person would’ve asked the second it showed up, “When did you get that?”

“Huh? Oh.” She puts her hand out and it scurries into her palm. “He’s new.”

“I thought you didn’t do familiars?”

“I don’t. He just kinda trespassed and got in the way of a potion. It was a disaster, honestly. Now he has increased…intelligence? I actually don’t know if you can call it that.”

 _“Vinny!”_ the rat squeaks.

“He can also say _one_ word, which I guess is his name.”

“That’s amazing!”

“I figured you’d think that.” 

Galo leans down to get a better look at him, and Vinny leaps from Lucia’s hand into Galo’s hair. That makes twice today something tried to nest on his head.

Lucia doesn’t seem to care. “So, why do you wanna fight these plant tentacles?”

“They’re _vines!”_ Galo runs his hands through his hair, trying to rustle out the rat. “...I think.”

“They sure sound like tentacles the way you explained them.”

“Don’t make it weird!”

“Oh, sorry to make your magic killer plant story _weird.”_

Vinny skitters down Galo’s neck, then his side, until he’s clinging to his belt.

He’s not offending anyone there, so long as he doesn’t go for the pants, so Galo leaves him be for now. “But magic isn’t weird for you! That’s why I thought you’d wanna help! I figured you could whip up some weed-killing potion that I can cover myself in.” He makes a swinging motion with his arms. “Then when I go in there with a sword or whatever to chop them up, they won’t be able to touch me!”

She tosses a few pieces of popcorn in her mouth. “First off, that’s insane, and you should know that I was on board the second you asked. This might just be the most ridiculous thing anyone’s ever asked me to work on and I’m _psyched.”_ Another few bites. “I just wanna know what the goal is here.”

“Goal?” Galo furrows his brow. “To save all the people that keep vanishing in there. I thought that was obvious?”

At that, Lucia grins. “I’d expect no less from you, Galo.” She hops up from the cough, paying no mind to the popcorn that goes flying. Vinny, however, pays plenty mind and leaps back onto the cushions to devour the stray pieces. “I’m not making magic weed killer, though. We don’t even know what those things are weak to.” She wanders around the corner and in the direction that Galo knows leads to her basement. He follows without question. “So if we’re gonna change that, you’ll have to cut me a sample of one of those crazy tentacles.”

Galo stops a little ways behind her once they’re downstairs. “If I can find an easy way to chop them up, then what would you need a sample for at that point?”

“Because they sound fucking _dope?”_

“They’re _dangerous_ and I have to take them down if they’re related to all these disappearances!”

She flops into a computer chair beside a cluttered desk and sticks her tongue out. _“Fine._ But if you can’t kill ‘em off for good, then getting me a sample would help me find a way to accomplish that.” She spins around once. “And if you _can_ kill ‘em off, I still wouldn’t mind a piece to study after.” She spins again, but this time stops when she’s facing the desk. She clears some bottles and stacks of books aside. “ A sword sounds lame. What are we thinking? Chainsaw?”

“I could kiss you.”

“I’m out of your league, big guy.” She snatches a pen from the mess and starts to scribble out a design. “So I’ll have to spice it up with magic, but fire’s gonna be too messy.”

“I don’t wanna ruin the forest! Just the bad plants!”

“Yeah, yeah, I got that.” After a few lines she erases it all and starts over. “Some wind cutting action? Or I can just do some generic strengthening on the blades. Or maybe ice could work…”

He leans over her shoulder to sneak a peek, but she huddles over it to block his view. “Is there a spell for all three?” he asks.

“There’s no _spell_ for any of it.” She scribbles harder. “I can’t do fancy hand-wavy magic like Aina’s sis. I’m good at _crafting._ Concocting. For fuck’s sake, Galo, why else would you come to me instead of Heris?”

Galo pouts. “Aina wouldn’t let me even if I wanted to.”

She turns around and points the eraser end of her pencil at him with a grin. “And she’d just get some big corporation involved if you tried. I, however, will keep this between you…” she points the eraser to herself, “...and me.”

He grins right back at her. “I trust you with my life, Lucia Fex.”

She pokes him in the chest with the pencil. “Then be careful not to lose that life to some Audrey II wannabe.”

“I have no idea what that means.”

“You disappoint me sometimes, Galo,” she says, then returns to her scribbling.

Galo takes a step back and allows his gaze to roam the basement while she works. Every inch of wall space is covered with tools and various gadgets that Lucia's made over the years. Some he doesn't even recognize, but others he does, such as the bug net mounted above one of the cabinets. Except it was used for catching a possessed cat that had been terrorizing the park instead of bugs.

She still refuses to take Ignis's money for helping with that incident. She won't even lend her skills to any of the big fancy magic-y corporations out there that want her. And yet, any time Galo or one of their friends has needed help, she's always been there with some crazy contraption or potion to save the day.

"Should I come back later?" he asks after some time has passed.

She nods. "Come by same time tomorrow. I'll have a prototype figured out."

"That's amazing!"

"I know." She holds out a fist, which he bumps with his own before heading back up the stairs. Vinny lies comfortably on his back, his belly significantly larger and the popcorn bowl significantly emptier. Galo offers the little guy a wave on the way out, even though he's pretty sure he's fallen asleep.

He's grateful that Aina has a late shift at the park, because he doesn't know if he'd have it in him to lie about still entertaining this whole plant-fighting idea if she asked. She doesn't need to know that he's working with Lucia now, but he doesn't exactly feel good about being sneaky over it, either.

Thankfully, he passes the hell out before she gets home, and he's out the door for work again before she wakes up in the morning.

* * *

His next shift goes smoothly enough. No ominous warnings or troublemaking teenagers. The second his time is up he bolts to Lucia's place once again to check on her progress.

Lucia, however, does not greet him when he gets to the door. Instead, said door opens to an empty living room, seemingly on its own.

"Vinny!"

It takes Galo a moment to register the rat sitting on the door handle. He's never seen a rat open a door before, so he's impressed beyond belief.

"That's amazing, little guy!" He holds out a palm, which Vinny happily hops onto to. "What else can you do?" Galo asks as he closes and locks the door.

"Vinny!"

"...Lucia's gonna need to make you a translator or something."

"Vinny!"

Galo just nods and takes Vinny with him down to the basement where Lucia is once again huddled over a desk with the local news playing quietly from a screen on the wall. This time, in place of papers on her desk is a long, shiny, white pole of some kind. Galo keeps his distance, but leans just enough to get a good enough look at the contraption that Lucia’s working on.

It doesn’t look like anything special. There’s an open panel near one end that Lucia’s going at with a screwdriver. Aside from that, it just looks like a boring, flattened piece of PVC pipe with a shoulder strap and a big, orange hunk of metal at the end.

“It’s…a hockey stick?”

Lucia finishes tightening the screw before she turns to shoot him a glare. _“Yeah,_ and I’ll use it on you like a hockey puck.”

“Well what _is_ it, then? It sure ain’t a chainsaw.”

With a sigh she spins back around and closes the panel. “It’s just a prototype so don’t go swingin’ it around yet.” She lifts the pole from the table and turns it toward Galo with two hands, as one might present a royal with a new sword.

He grins and Vinny hops out from his palm and onto the table so he can take the weapon into his own hands.

It’s light. Shockingly light, in fact. He turns it over a few times to get a better feel for it. There’s a small lever near the metal end. He turns it downward until he hears a click, but nothing happens.

He pouts at her. “It’s not doing anything.”

“Yeah, that’s ‘cause I knew you’d do that.” She kicks against the table, sending the chair and herself rolling over to a workbench along the wall. There are small, squarish bottles of varying colors lying all over the tabletop. She plucks a light blue one from among them and holds it up. “The thing’s just gotta be loaded, is all.”

“Loaded?”

She tosses the bottle to him. “Pop that sucker in there.”

He catches it, but it takes a moment to figure out where he’s supposed to load it. There’s a tiny compartment beneath the lever, so he shoves it in there. A click sounds, and a blast of cold air puffs out from the loading space.

The pole vibrates slightly as something revs up inside of it, and soon cold air blows out from all over. Slots open up along the edges to reveal what _look_ like small shards of ice. They begin to move along the exterior, picking up pace in a way that greatly resembles…

 _“A chainsaw!”_ he announces.

Lucia’s face lights up with an almost crazed sort of joy. “And that’s just one cartridge.” She pats an empty space on the table. “I couldn’t make up my mind. The slicey wind-sword idea seemed cool, too, so I’ve got a few of those in here, but I haven’t really tested the rest as much as that and the ice blade.” She picks up one with a green tint to it. “Just make sure you don’t touch the liquid in these if they break. There’s a lot of crushed up crystals in there that are basically condensed magic, and you’d probably freeze or slice a hand off if they aren’t contained in the weapon itself…”

She keeps talking, but Galo’s focus has already shifted. He tosses the weapon from one hand into the other, careful of the ice trailing along the sides. He gives the lever a flip in the opposite direction, and with another blow of steam the ice sinks back inside.

“...but I tried to avoid any elements that could, y’know, accidentally burn down a forest or something. I’m still working on more, but they’re…”

She trails off and follows Galo’s gaze, which has now wandered from the weapon to the TV screen on the wall. The volume is too low to hear, but she’s left the closed captioning on.

The news report plays over a photograph of the forest in question, taken from a distance while the headline at the bottom reads, _“Missing Person.”_

She frowns. “Another one wandered in there, huh? I wonder why some wind up stuck inside while others get booted out...”

A second image is shown over the trees, this time displaying a picture of a girl with messy, auburn hair.

Galo tries not to drop the weapon.

“She’s pretty, too,” Lucia sighs, then jumps when Galo slams a hand on the table next to her.

“Which of these did you say you tested?”

“Uh, just the white and blue ones really. Why— Wait, _no,_ put those _down!”_

“I promise not to break it!” Galo says as he shoves what blue and white cartridges he could swipe from under her nose into his pockets. He can hear the sound of Lucia clumsily jumping from her chair and chasing after him as he sprints for the stairs, but she doesn’t manage to catch up by the time he makes it out the door and onto his bike.

_“Galo Thymos, you get back here!”_

He slings the weapon over his back and speeds off with nothing more than a wave in her direction. Distantly, he hears her shouting Aina’s name, which he assumes is a threat to tell her.

Not that it matters. Apparently he’s the only one who can make it into the woods, so it’s not like either of them can follow him.

The real question is once he gets inside, can he bring someone else back out with him? Even if he finds that mysterious girl from the park in there, can she leave with him? Or will some magic fog pull her away from him if he tries?

Only one way to find out.

He parks closer to the edge of the forest this time. He apologizes to the field that he just ran his bike through on the way. He doesn’t know how much time he has to waste being careful of some grass right now. He doesn’t know how long she’s been in there, how deep she’s wandered, or if she’s even _alive._ All he knows is that he may be her only chance.

He pulls the contraption— er, the weapon— the _sword thing_ off his back once he’s made it past the first clusters of trees. He checks his pockets and he only managed to grab five cartridges from Lucia’s desk. Two white, three blue. There are other switches and buttons on the sword that he hasn’t even learned the uses of yet.

It’s fine. On the job training is the best way to learn, right? So this is the best way to test Lucia's weapon. Probably.

He finds his grip tightening on it the further he ventures in. His pace is clumsier— more rushed than the first time he came through here. He leaps over patches of roots and uneven ground and ducks beneath branches.

He doesn’t even know what direction to start looking.

Hell, he never even got this girl’s _name,_ and yet he keeps up his stride for what feels like at least an hour before he winds up in a clearing among some more lifeless-looking trees.

He pants through the cold air, still clutching the sword as he turns on his heel and looks for anything to go off of. Footprints. Discarded belongings. _Anything._

“Hey….” he says, low and out of breath at first, and then louder, _“Hey!”_ He turns back to the way he came from— at least he thinks it might be where he came from. He’s long lost his sense of direction. “If you’re lost, I’m here to getcha!” he shouts into the trees, “So come on out so I can take you home, already!”

He waits a beat while he catches his breath. No one calls back. He huffs out his nose. “Fine! I’ll just pick a direction and run! You gotta be out here somewhere!”

This time he gets a response, but not in the form of a voice.

He picks up on a rustling of leaves and looks in their direction. He hopes to see a person, but those hopes are quickly stomped out.

Galo dives out of the way as a streak of light comes racing toward him. He stumbles and falls to his knees, but just as quickly scrambles back up and out of his attacker’s path. When he regains his footing, he sees the light curl in the air. It’s just like the vines from the last time, but somehow…different.

At first he thinks it’s just the color. It’s not blue or red this time, but instead a luminous pink.

“You a different monster from before?” He scoffs and tugs at the sword’s lever. He can feel the chill of the ice activating immediately, making the already cold forest feel even colder. “Doesn’t matter. If you guys are the ones kidnapping people, I’ll take you all out!”

The vine makes another strike, and this time when Galo dodges he gives the sword a swing. He expects it to work like a normal chainsaw and cut the thing in two, but the reaction is different. The moment the ice makes contact it spreads, freezing the vine until it cracks and shatters before him. He takes in the sight of the shards of cracked remains on the forest floor with a stunned expression before he breaks into an accomplished grin.

 _“Ha!”_ he laughs, just before something coils around his ankle. A new vine yanks Galo up from the ground and mercilessly slams him face-down onto the forest floor with full force. Galo curses with a now-bloody nose and lip and tries to push himself back up, but the plantlife beneath him writhes and grabs at all of his limbs, pulling him back down. The sword remains in his grasp while pink thorny tendrils coil around the lever to keep the ice at bay.

Galo fights against it all, ignoring the sting as the thorns tear at his flesh. The rustling of leaves grows louder, and for just a short moment he pauses in his struggling.

A familiar glint of metal pokes through the trees. A heavy vine presses Galo’s face into the dirt, but he still manages to keep his gaze upward, trained on the approaching mass. He goes back to fighting the vines and tendrils, and they fight back. Pushing harder. Constricting tighter.

_“You’re not welcome here.”_

The voice comes from the mass behind the trees and is distorted like the two he’d heard before. He still can’t see it clearly enough, but he _does_ see what happens when it speaks.

The pink glow illuminating the plants pulses with a green that washes over the surrounding leaves, making its way up through the trees. The once lifeless, greyish trees glow with life for just a moment.

Galo fights the vine pushing his head down until he can get his chin propped against the ground. “No? If no one’s welcome here, why don’t you let all those missing people go?” He tries to pry a finger from the tendrils’ hold. He’s so close to being able to pull the lever again.

“You _are not welcome here,”_ it repeats, and Galo doesn’t miss the emphasis on the _“you.”_

“One hell of a welcoming party if I was!” His fingers are warm with blood, but he can feel the bump of the lever beneath all of the tendrils now. So close. He’s _so_ close.

 _“I will see you out of these woods…”_ The light pulses through the forest with each word. _“...and you will stay out.”_

“Ha! Says who?”

 _“Says the one who could have your_ head _right now if he chose.”_

“You're gonna threaten me and not even show yourself?”

He catches another sliver of light from the source. Two slits like eyes, purple and intense in their stare.

Galo feels a click and his lips quirk upward as the sword surrounds itself with ice. It spreads through the plants around him, crackling and crumbling them to pieces. He clambers to his feet and wastes no time in running for the source of the voice.

 _“Idiot,”_ it utters. Now that Galo’s closer, he can see more of its form when the trees around it light up.

He doesn’t know what it’s really made of, but it almost looks like plates of shiny, black metal have arranged themselves like giant scales on the creature’s body.

No, that’s not right. They aren’t scales. More like…armor?

And yet it hisses like a snake and moves like a snake, rearing back as Galo leaps at it with the icy sword. The thing’s head alone is about the size of Galo’s torso, but that’s not gonna stop him from chopping through if that’s what he has to do.

He slices but it dodges, slipping beneath his legs and knocking him off his feet again.

Galo recovers, and as the serpent slips away, he lands a blow to the end of its tail. It hisses again as ice crawls up along its body.

“Tell me where the missing people are!” Galo charges for it again. The cartridge must be running out, because the blade is beginning to warm up again. He fishes another from his pocket and slips it into the compartment while the serpent shatters the layer of ice from its body.

_“Safe from people like you.”_

“Oh, _I’m_ the problem?” This time when he swings it’s not ice that envelops the sword. Something bursts out from the edge with enough force that Galo recoils from the attack. The force cuts through the air, slicing through the rising vines and knocking the serpent back with another pained hiss.

Wind. Right. Lucia did mention that, didn’t she?

He goes to swing again but the serpent strikes, fanged mouth open wide and glowing yellow from the inside.

The two clash, but Galo refuses to relent his grip even as its maw closes around the blade.

It swings its head, taking Galo with it. He digs his feet into the dirt, only to have them struck by thorny plants that pierce right through his work boots.

The serpent flings him and the sword out from the clearing. Branches scrape and break against Galo’s arms and back when he’s thrown, and by the time he rights himself, the serpent is right in his face again. It snaps and the threat of fangs as long as his forearm sends Galo stumbling back. The serpent keeps at it, biting at Galo and forcing him to keep dodging not only it, but the trees that seem to grow more and more congested in this part of the woods. He no longer has the leisure of leaping around an open clearing.

Even when he manages to get a swing in, the serpent only shakes its head at the wind like it’s a mild inconvenience, even though Galo just saw the stuff cut through its vines like a knife earlier.

Then, just when Galo thinks they’ve reached an area he can better maneuver, the serpent butts its head against him, sending him falling onto his rear in a far less threatening manner than before.

And then it stops, and Galo realizes that he’s once again sitting in the field outside the forest’s edge.

That can’t be. He was running through that place for too long to have been so close to the exit. Had he been running in circles?

The trees along the edge pulse with life and the vines dangling from their branches lunge out to pin Galo to the floor, along with his weapon.

The serpent turns away and Galo yells out.

“Don’t you run away, you _coward!”_

No response.

He breaks the vines’ hold and runs after the serpent, but more of them grow up from the ground, clutching and digging their thorns into his wrists.

“I’m gonna save all those people! And my face is gonna be the last thing you see when I do it!” He takes a step forward, despite the weight trying to pull him back. “Remember the name Galo Thymos, because it’s the name of the guy who’s gonna put an end to you and your crazy woods!”

The snake turns its head. At first it says nothing as more vines grow up around the bases of the trees, tangling with each other in an intricate web.

Galo’s eyes go wide as the vines form something of a gate between every possible opening. Between the gaps of the growing wall he sees the plates of armor pull back and fold against each other, completely destroying the image of the snake.

What’s left in its place is a boy, or a man...someone no older than himself, he’s sure. His hair is green as the light that filled the trees. He watches Galo with an upturned chin and a piercing gaze.

As the gaps close in the wall, the distortion in the voice fades into an almost somber sort of sound.

“Keep to your side of the line, Galo Thymos.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i don't actually know anything about plants


	2. Ivy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Y'know, just a normal shopping trip in your local haunted forest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried not to go too crazy with the American mall references, but some things are just... too hard to not poke fun at.

Sunlight filters through broken ceiling panes, but the floor beneath its caress remains cold as ice. The same silence as always hangs in the air of the abandoned structure — awaiting the day a bird may fly through to break it with its song.

There are no birds today. Their home is in the trees outside beneath the sun, not in the ones that have grown between the cracked tiles of this old shopping mall.

There is however, a foreign but distinct  _ clack _ of shoes on tile that echoes through the otherwise soundless building.

It may very well have been years since human life last wandered this mall, and Lio Fotia assumes this to be true as he notes the amount of dust settled along every surface he passes.

The gates of the store fronts are shut and most of the windows are either boarded up or concealed by old tarps from whenever the mall closed its doors. He can't see into most of the shops like this. Hopefully the locks to the gates are rusted enough that they can get inside without a problem…

"Hey, Boss?"

A short ways behind him, a much taller man follows. His long, dark hair has been tied back for once.

Lio stops before a storefront with a broken window. There's a mannequin on display with some dusty, faux leather outfit covered in studs and chains, surrounded by outdated band posters. Tendrils of dried vine coil around the mannequin stand. He can't make out much of the store beyond the display though.

He turns to face Meis, who has his eyes trained on the clipboard in his hands.

"You're not really thinking of using this place for housing, are you?"

Lio's gaze wanders beyond Meis, scanning their surroundings. The place is in shambles, but not nearly as much as the other parts of the city that the forest has already claimed. Some of the buildings they've used for shelter thus far look like they may have already been rotting away before the trees took over.

This one will need work, sure. They haven't ventured that far into the building yet, but he can already see where some trees have grown through the mall's flooring over the years.

He sneezes, and Meis raises a brow.

"...It could use a bit of cleanup," Lio says, rubbing his nose as he turns back toward the storefront. "It's still more structurally sound than the place we've been staying in."

"I mean, we're not construction experts."

"No, but most of those old apartment buildings feel like they're on the verge of collapsing. I don't want everyone worrying about that every time they go to sleep." He bends to take a better look at the gate's lock. "I think the buildings in this part of the city were probably built later than the others. They don't seem as old." He runs a finger over the layer of dust on the lock. “They probably weren’t here for long before the forest took over.”

From the cracks in the tile, Lio brings forth a faint, pinkish glow. A thorn strikes from beneath, through the lock, clicking it open and dropping bits of rust in its wake.

"So, what? You're gonna sleep in an old Hot Topic?"

Lio glances up at the sign over the gate. He purses his lips at the old, overly-edgy lettering. "We can make use of every room here."

"Yeah, you just happened to start with the one that suits you most," Meis says with a shit-eating grin.

Lio shoots an unimpressed stare his way as some vines stretch up from the cracks to push the shutter gate open. "I've never shopped at one of these."

"Boss." Meis looks him up and down. "You're a terrible liar."

Lio spares a glance at his own clothing. He's wearing a lot of black. Big deal. It's just jeans and a t-shirt right now, so he doesn't think Meis's assumption is exactly fair.

Granted, his old clothes had way more belts and zippers than this, but that's not the point.

He steps inside and immediately sneezes again. The amount of dust is ridiculous.

Maybe not as ridiculous as some of the pants lining the walls though. Even for him, the placement of all the straps and loops is absurd. Lio may like to layer an unnecessary amount of belts himself, but at least he never has his legs tied together by them.

Meis pulls one of the less baggy pairs off from the wall. The pockets are lined with what was probably once a bright, neon yellow, but now looks more like a pale, sickly color. They also have no fewer than four chains criss-crossing from one leg to the other.

“This is you.”

“It’s not.”

“It is. Look at all the zippers.”

Lio rolls his eyes and starts toward the back of the store. He doesn’t mention that  _ maybe _ he’d wear them if he removed the chains...or at least rearranged them to where they wouldn’t get tangled in his vines after two steps. He also doesn’t mention that he legitimately likes some of the jackets he sees on his way to the fitting rooms.

The shop’s layout isn’t exactly preferable for housing. The building they’d been staying in for the last few months at least had  _ actual _ apartment rooms, so they could set up sleeping bags and furniture in a way that made sense. In here, there’s a stupid register stand in the middle of the room and everyone would probably be tripping over each other in their sleep.

The fitting room benches are long enough that they could maybe make a decent bed for some of the kids, but otherwise it’d take a bit of creativity to make this work.

Meis catches Lio staring into the fitting room and snorts. “Y’know, there’re probably over twenty other stores in this place. If we can’t make use of one, we can still use it for storage or something.”

Lio huffs. The directory at the entrance was a shattered mess so they have no idea how many or what sort of stores they’re going to find here. If there’s even one large department type store that isn’t in shambles, that should be enough in itself.

If they’re lucky they’ll find a mattress store too.

Meis continues to grin. “I know you were  _ really _ set on living in Hot Topic, Boss.”

Lio closes the fitting room door. He was  _ not _ set on this store in particular. It’s just a disappointing start. At least they’ll have an insane supply of new clothes if the other shops are anything like this one.

“I can’t imagine how this place went under,” he mutters. The tendrils hanging over the doors pulse with a weak light when his eyes settle on them. “If the mall had just closed like normal, they wouldn’t have left all the product here. It’s like everyone just up and vanished one day…”

Meis tilts his head, eyes wandering to the square t-shirt displays. “Who knows? The forest is unpredictable, even for us. It could’ve taken this place over in a day. Tossed everyone’s sorry asses out and fought anyone who tried to come back.”

It’s not impossible. Nowadays the forest doesn’t seem to act out violently without the command of Lio or the other guardians, but from his understanding, that wasn’t the case before any of them showed up.

“Maybe it was searching for us,” he says, almost sad as he watches the tendrils curl in his direction.

Meis hums, considering the possibility.

The spirits of the forest have always spoken to them in a sense, but never in words that one could easily pick apart. It’s always been more of a feeling, or an instinct. Lio can feel when the forest is upset or content, but asking its history or reasons for why and where it grows has never been an option. He only knows that the more guardians its calls reach, the more alive the place feels. The outskirts may still look dry and withered, but with every new chosen one it lets inside, the more vibrant it grows from within.

And the more vibrant it grows, the less exhausted Lio and the others become. He wouldn’t have ever expected to feel a sense of normalcy again seven years ago when he came here, feeling like a husk of himself.

Lio pries his gaze from the vines to follow Meis out. They still have an entire mall to scout, assuming the rest of the building is still standing as strong as the front.

The other storefronts are the same as the first—just as dusty and untouched. The ones they  _ can _ see inside of still appear to have merchandise remaining as well. There’s even a small toy shop among them all. Lio’s lip quirks into the beginnings of a smile at the sight of it. The children among their numbers will be elated when they find out.

He almost walks into Meis’ back when they reach a square of vending machines. He catches himself and follows the other’s gaze. That’s when he hears the hurried  _ pit pat _ of shoes nearing from afar. Lio turns to find the most recent addition to their family racing after them. Her auburn hair is pulled back in a messy ponytail, giving a clear view to her exhausted face.

“Thyma?” He takes a step toward her, but she stops a short distance away.

Her hands fall to her knees as she works to catch her breath. “G-Gueira…” she starts, “Gueira said to come get you!”

Meis takes a step in front of Lio. “What _ happened?” _ His tone is sharper than usual. It brings the tiniest, frightened squeak out of Thyma.

Lio sets a hand on Meis’s shoulder to reel him back. “Where is Gueira?” he asks, attempting a more comforting tone.

She breathes in and straightens. “He’s near the forest’s edge! I...I didn’t see anything, but he said to tell you, uh…” she furrows her brow and looks off to the side, then in her best Gueira impression says,  _ “...The blue dipshit is back for round three.” _

Lio smacks a palm to his forehead, and Meis lets out the loudest cackle.

_ “Jesus, _ I thought it was gonna be something  _ important,” _ Meis laughs.

Thyma frowns. “He looked like he was fighting, though. There were vines whipping around everywhere.” She turns her attention to Lio. “I thought...I thought you guys said only people like us could get past the fog. Why did he make it sound like there’s an intruder?”

Lio sighs. “There’s no threat. Just a pest.” He starts past her. The angry  _ clack _ of his boot heels betrays his reassuring words.

Meis snorts. “Should I come along?”

“I’ve got it,” Lio grunts. He stops to spare Thyma a look over his shoulder. “You can join Meis, if you want. We’re trying to get ideas for this old place.”

She looks around first, then offers a small nod.

Lio returns the gesture before making his way out from the mall.

He didn’t think to ask  _ where _ at the forest’s edge Gueira was, but he has a pretty good guess given that this Galo nuisance entered through the same section the last two times. If Gueira hasn’t already put an end to this nonsense, Lio  _ will. _

The grass glows and writhes in the wake of his footsteps. A shadow crawls over him, hardening into plates as the snake forms around him. Lio leaps before the armor has fully consumed him and dives toward the forest floor once it has. He’s much faster as the snake, and  _ boy _ does he want to get this over with.

He finds Gueira about where he expected, albeit laying on his back in the middle of the grass instead of fighting. There’s no Galo to be seen.

Gueira doesn’t open his eyes. He stays where he is, arms outstretched along the ground. Lio doesn’t see or smell blood, and he knows for sure that Gueira is fine when he laughs out a, “‘Sup, Boss?”

“He’s gone, I take it.” The armor peels back in fragmented sections, exposing Lio’s human torso. He looks down on Gueira who gives him a lazy thumbs up.

“Kicked him out. Didn’t kill him, I promise.”

Lio hums in acknowledgement. The rest of the snake’s massive body dissipates and Lio drops to his feet. “Did it sound like he’d be back?”

“Oh hell yeah. He  _ announced _ he would.”

“Ugh.”

Gueira turns his head, red hair all full of dead leaves. “You don’t think he’s like us, huh? Maybe he just hasn’t figured it out yet?”

“It wouldn’t matter if he was.”

Gueira raises a brow.

Lio sighs and drops himself to the floor, criss crossing his legs beside Gueira. “He’s Foresight trash.”

“Uh, you sure about that? Aren’t Foresight’s people usually a little more…uptight?”

Lio rests his chin in his hand and mumbles against it. “It’s complicated.”

“You’ve met him before this though?”

“No. Just saw him in pictures and things.” Lio notes some unnatural scratches in the trees up ahead. They don’t look like they’re from the tusks of Gueira’s armor, so he can only assume they’re from Galo’s crazy weapon. His expression sours. “He complained about him. A  _ lot.” _

“He… You mean Kray?”

Lio scrunches his nose like he’s smelled something foul.

“If Kray didn’t like him, then he can’t be  _ that _ bad right? The guy does seem kinda harmless, even if he’s real fuckin’ annoying. And stupid.”

“None of that would stop Kray from using him.”

“Hmm…” Gueira shifts his arms beneath his head. “He does keep coming back with bigger weapons every time.”

“He also keeps coming back to the same exact spot.”

Gueira grins. “Want me to hang out for a while in case the idiot comes back?”

Lio frowns at the scuffed-up trees around them. “No,” he says, “I want to take care of this myself.”

“Boss, there’s no way we’ll know when the guy’s coming. It’s been like three days since the last time. It could be another three, or another half hour.”

Lio groans. “I know.”

“We can, y’know, take turns.”

“But then it’ll be like today. You’ll send a message for me and I’ll get here too late.”

Gueira watches him for a long moment, then shrugs. “It’s your call, Boss.”

“Just check on me in the morning, I guess,” Lio mumbles. “Meis and Thyma are checking out that old mall we found the other day if you wanna join them.”

“They got Dick’s?”

Lio scrunches his nose once more, this time in confusion rather than disgust.

Gueira laughs, loud and sharp. He sits up. “The sporting goods store!”

“Dunno. They had a Hot Topic.”

“Of course you found the Hot Topic.”

Lio shoves him, but Gueira continues laughing.

“Look, if they’ve got one...” Gueira wipes a tear from his eye, “...I’ll nab you a sleeping bag.”

“I’m not sleeping.”

“Sure you’re not.” Gueira gets to his feet and rustles some of the leaves out of his hair. “See you in the morning then, Boss.”

Lio’s words are muffled against his hand when he says, “See ya.”

As Gueira takes his leave, Lio’s eyes remain trained on the line of trees that lead to the field outside. He wishes he’d managed to snap that weird weapon of Galo’s in half the last time they fought. Maybe that would have stopped him from coming back a third time. Or maybe he would’ve just come back with something more insane.

After about two hours Lio resumes Gueira’s prior position of laying in the grass. It’s already growing dark, and he’s already regretting not asking for someone to bring him some food. He’s pretty sure he remembers where the nearest safe-to-eat berry bushes and mushrooms grow in this area, but the feeling that some moron with a magic chainsaw might pass through the second he turns his back eats at him more than his hunger.

“This is stupid,” he mutters around hour three. If Galo isn’t brave enough to enter through an unfamiliar section of forest, he probably isn’t brave enough to come through here at night.

Unless he has magic night-vision goggles, too.

Lio squints at what few stars have begun to poke through the clusters of dead branches up above. None of the gear Galo was wearing  _ looked _ like it was Foresight-manufactured. But then, he doesn’t know how much the world outside the forest has changed in the past seven years.

The grass around him pulses with a soft glow as the night grows darker. It’s quiet this far out from the abandoned city. The trees here only come to life in the presence of a guardian. The fauna are nearly nonexistent this close to the forest’s edge. Lio’s grown used to the sound of owls and crickets, but here he can only hear the occasional breeze stirring up fallen leaves.

That is until what must be about hour five when a voice that does  _ not _ belong to Galo Thymos or any of the guardians breaks through the silence.

“Alright, we’ve gone far enough now haven’t we?”

The voice is female. Young. Maybe somewhere around Lio’s age. Maybe younger. Either way, it’s unfamiliar.

“Shh! One of the monsters will hear you!”

_ That _ voice is more familiar.

Slowly, Lio sits up. He can see the shine of flashlights passing through the trees.

“If I say that I saw a monster and I believe you, can we go home?”

“I didn’t ask you to come out here!”

“I came out here so you wouldn’t do something  _ stupid!” _

“And how’s that working out for you?”

The glow around Lio dies down. As the flare of flashlights grows closer his armor reforms and warps his body into the snake once more. He slithers through the denser sections of trees, keeping his head low within the shadows. 

One set of footsteps comes to a halt.

“I don’t like this, Galo.”

“I can meet you back home, then!”

Lio is close enough now that the two of them are in sight.

The girl grabs Galo by the shoulder. “This is that fog, right? This is what everyone’s so afraid of. You said you never saw it!”

“What fog? Aina, there’s nothing  _ here.” _

_ That _ is not a response that Lio likes. They had wondered how Galo got past the fog, but the fact that he can’t even see it doesn’t make him feel any better.

The guardians can’t see it, either.

He hisses low and unheard. Aina continues to tug on Galo, but he pulls away. 

“How can you act like there’s nothing here?! Galo, I can barely  _ see _ you—”

She chokes on the last word. Galo manages to catch her as she goes limp and falls against him.

“Aina?  _ Aina!” _

Lio inches forward, his movements silent as he raises his head into the moonlight.

Aina weakly turns her head back toward the way they came, but her eyes are empty.

“What’s wrong? Hey! Say something!”

_ “She can’t hear you,” _ Lio says, voice distorted by his current form.

Galo reaches for the weapon strapped to his back.

_ “You would abandon her to fight me?” _

Galo’s arm around Aina tenses. He searches the shadows for Lio and settles a hard glare on him once he finds him.

Lio stays where he is.  _ “The fog has her. Why it doesn’t have you, I can’t fathom.” _

“The hell did you do to her?”

_ “Nothing. The forest sends away those it doesn’t welcome.” _

“You said I wasn’t welcome, and I’m not keeling over.”

Lio bares his fangs.  _ “That can change.” _

Galo pulls Aina closer. She shuffles against him in a weak attempt to pry herself away.

_ “She wants to leave. You should go with her.” _

“This some kind of trick?!”

_ “Trick. Spell. Call it what you want.” _ Lio’s eyes glow. The trees around him pulse once with the same light.  _ “You can let her go and she’ll return the way she came. She’ll wake up once she’s made it past the forest’s edge. Or you can be a decent person and accompany her so she doesn’t wake up alone.” _

“You don’t get to tell me how to be a decent person when you’re kidnapping people in here!”

_ “Is that what me telling you to leave with her sounds like?” _

Galo bites his lip. He slowly removes his hand from his weapon to lift Aina into his arms. He takes a step back, gaze fixed on Lio as he retreats.

“I’ll be back.”

_ “Spare me.” _

Lio waits a long while before allowing himself to return to normal. With a sigh, he falls to the floor again. The glow settles until just a few stray patches of grass are all that illuminates the dark.

Lio waits, because he knows it won’t be long before Galo comes back.

And he absolutely does not fall asleep.

* * *

Lio wakes to a pile of leaves in his face.

He doesn’t register his situation at first, but he does register the sound of someone else’s feet crunching through leaves. Lio opens his eyes wide and vines whip out from the dirt to tangle the trespasser before Lio can even finish sitting up.

When he’s finally made sense of his surroundings he finds Gueira with his arms in the air, clutching a bundle of something while the vines constrict him.

“We found Dick’s,” he wheezes.

Lio releases him with a sigh and an apology. Gueira chucks what he was holding at him. Lio catches it and turns it over in his lap.

“I said I didn’t need a sleeping bag.”

“You like sleeping with dirt in your eyes that bad, huh?”

Lio wipes at his face with the back of his hand. He’s not any more dirty than usual.

“Meis said I should try to bribe you with soup to come back. It’s that mushroom one you liked last time.”

Lio very purposefully does not make eye contact with him and instead glares down at the sleeping bag. “I’m fine.”

“Yeah, see, I kinda figured the only way to get you back there was if I dragged you.”

“Don’t even  _ try—” _

“I won’t!” Gueira throws his hands up in defense. “I brought these, though.” He shuffles through his pockets and drops a pile of what must be  _ long _ past expired protein bars on top of the sleeping bag. “Found them in Dick’s.”

Lio’s lips quirk into an almost-smile. “You’re gonna look for every excuse to say the name of that store, aren’t you?”

Gueira grins. “Hell yeah.”

Lio holds up one of the bars. The label says it’s peanut butter and granola, but he doesn’t see an expiration date. “Have you tried one of these yet?”

“Yeah. They’re flavorless bricks at this point. I haven’t gotten sick yet though.”

Impressive, considering they’ve been sitting around for seven years  _ at minimum. _ Lio would still rather have the soup.

Gueira shoves his hands in his pockets. “One of us can come by at night and keep watch while you rest. That way you’re right there if we need to wake you. But, Boss…” he frowns down at Lio, “...how long do you plan to keep this up?”

Lio unwraps the bar anyway. “Until he stops coming back.”

“...Look, I know you don’t condone murder when it’s not necessary, but that’s kinda gonna be your only option. Unless you cut off his legs or something.”

Lio groans. “I’ll figure something out,” he says, though he has no idea what sort of force it would take to dissuade the pest.

Gueira whistles. “Gooooooood luck with that one.” He turns away to head back to the others. “We’ll still bring you some soup.”

“Thanks.” Lio attempts a bite from the protein bar, but his teeth don’t even make a dent. He’d have to turn into the snake to make any headway without injuring his mouth. Or he could just sit here and sadly lick away at energy bars until Galo or some soup shows up. It wouldn’t be the  _ most _ pathetic thing he’s ever done.

Instead, he shoves the sleeping bag and stash of snacks in some bushes and spends the rest of the morning waiting up in the trees, occasionally gnawing at the one bar he’s actually opened.

It’s not even noon yet when Galo Thymos shows his face the fifth time.

He’s alone now, and the stupid chainsaw thing is in his hands instead of strapped to his back. He’s better equipped this time, with a belt lined with pouches of who-knows-what and...well no, that’s really it. Actually, that’s the  _ only _ extra equipment he has. He’s not even wearing a  _ shirt. _

Does he want to get cut up by thorns so badly?

Lio leans over the largest branch and lets the armor claim him. If Galo’s alone then he has no reason to hold back this time.

Vines strike up from the earth and ensnare Galo’s blade, followed by his arms and legs. As they pull Galo toward the ground Lio drops down from the trees, fully transformed by the time he’s landed.

The vines turn to ice and shatter around Galo. He stumbles as he regains his footing and charges for Lio. A cloud of cold air bursts from the blade when he swings it. Lio hisses and swerves out of its path. His tail sweeps along the floor, knocking Galo off his feet. Lio takes the chance to ram his head into Galo’s body, crushing him against the nearest tree.

The weapon clicks and Lio’s vision temporarily goes white.

He recoils with a pained hiss. A harsh vibration runs through him from his head to his tail. He almost feels like the armor is about to crack, but he manages to hold his form.

Galo falls from the tree with a  _ thud _ and scrambles back to his feet. Lio notes the faint yellow sparks coming off the blade.

_ Electricity? _ It was just ice and wind last time.

Lio tries to shake the numbing feeling of the shock away. A wall of vines forms between himself and Galo to stall him a moment longer. The blade clicks again and Lio can feel the chill of the ice magic even through the wall.

Galo swings at the barrier, freezing the vines on contact. Lio calls forth more, strengthening the layers between them.

“We can make this real easy, y’know!” Galo’s voice is clear even through the growth. “Let the people you’ve sucked in here go and you’ll never have to see me again!”

_ “You assume that anyone here can leave.” _ Lio pulls back. Thorns grow along the mass of vines. They bend toward Galo, striking both him and the earth around him. They harden into spiny poles, trapping his limbs and body between them at an odd angle and forcing a pained yell out of his throat. His grip slips and his weapon clatters to the floor. Lio raises his upper body, his fangs bared and poised to strike.  _ “Go back to your park, ranger. These woods have no need for you.” _

Galo squints against the thorns cutting into the side of his face. “How the hell do you know where I work?”

_ “Your uniform. The first time we fought.” _

“So, what, you’ve been to the city then? Lookin’ like  _ that?”  _ He yelps as the thorns press in closer on his cheek.

_ “You said you came here looking for the people that were lured inside.” _

Galo glares at him with one open eye and a bloody cheek.

_ “And who do you think you’re talking to?” _

“Well I know the girl I met who disappeared wasn’t a giant  _ snake!” _

Lio glares in silence for a moment, then allows the armor to peel back and reform to his original shape. His eyes glow for a brief moment before they settle back to a more muted pinkish-purple. He tilts his head, pale hair brushing his shoulder as he studies Galo. “And how would you know?” he asks. A vine curls up from Galo’s feet to fling the weapon further from him. Lio lifts a toe and catches the hilt of it beneath his foot.

Galo looks from the weapon back to Lio, eyes wide.

Lio raises a brow. “All out of cocky remarks?”

“She was lost,” he says, tone less boisterous and more serious than Lio’s heard from him thus far.

“And she found what she was looking for, just like the rest of us.” The plants beneath him wind around the blade. Lio puts his weight on his foot and the weapon snaps in two.

“Oh come the  _ fuck _ on!” Galo yells, as if that pained him more than any of the spikes digging into his flesh.

“Go home, Galo Thymos.”

“You gotta let me go for me to do that!”

Lio looks him up and down. The vines soften, but rather than relinquish their grip they wrap around Galo and pin his arms to his torso. 

Galo is forcibly dragged and thrown out from the forest, and Lio stays where he is and waits, because he has the sinking feeling that he’ll be back.

* * *

An unfortunate routine forms after that meeting.

Galo’s intrusions become more regular. Scheduled, almost. 

The sixth time he’s unarmed and Lio goes easy on him. The seventh, he’s gained another weapon just like the first, but he never actually uses it. By the eighth time, Lio can tell when he’s going to show up based on where the sun hangs in the sky. The conversation is the same every time — Galo says he wants to “help” as if he knows anything about what goes on beyond the fog-ridden boundary, Lio tells him to stay out of it, and the cycle continues.

After the ninth meeting, Meis finds Lio leaning against a tree with dark circles beneath his eyes and twigs sticking out of his hair in all directions.

“Your friend come by yet?” he asks.

Lio doesn’t turn to face him, but slowly raises a middle finger.

Meis laughs. “Well, I brought you dinner. Maybe tomorrow you should invite him to eat instead of dropping him on his ass out in the field.”

Lio makes a hissing sound. His eyes widen when he catches it. Meis stares at him.

“You  _ really _ need to sleep.”

“I’m  _ fine.” _

“You don’t hear me and Gueira  _ growling _ or  _ oinking _ at people.” Meis sets a bowl down on a clear patch of dirt.

Lio’s stomach growls at the smell of cooked pumpkin. They’re fortunate that the forest provides them with such a variety of fruits and vegetables, but it really is the seasonal stuff that Lio likes the best, if only because it’s something different.

_ God _ does he miss junk food though.

He sits down next to the bowl. Only then does he realize how filthy his hands have gotten. There are no ponds or rivers this close to the edge, so he hasn’t exactly had a way to rinse off yet.

“We found so much shit in that mall. You should really come back and check it out.”

Lio hums in response and takes a bite of food.

“There’s a dollar store in there that’s still pretty well-stocked.” Meis starts to list off things on his fingers, “Paper. Pencils. Utensils.” A pause. “Deodorant.”

Lio gives him an exasperated look.

“Just putting it out there.” Meis allows Lio to eat in silence for a bit. He leans against the tree himself and stares out in the direction of the field. “...Gueira told me what you said about the guy’s ties to you-know-who.”

Lio says nothing to that.

“You really think we should be worried?”

Lio stares down at his food in silence. He ruled out the possibility of Galo having ill intentions a while ago. What he hasn’t ruled out is the possibility that Galo is being used, or that he’s just  _ dumb _ enough to do something on the outside that could endanger them here. Hell, he’s already tried to bring someone else with him already.

And if he’s being honest, something terrifies him about Galo showing no signs or understanding of their powers, or of the call that lured the rest of them here, and yet he can  _ still _ pass through the fog unaffected.

Galo Thymos is an anomaly, and Lio doesn’t know how to deal with that.

He  _ does _ know that the outside world has had no choice but to leave them alone up until now, and he’d prefer to keep it that way.

“I don’t know,” is what he finally says.

Meis’s shoulders fall slightly. “Well...keep us updated if that changes. I’m not leaving here until you get some sleep though.”

Lio finds that he can’t argue against sleep this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're not in a country that has them: Yes, "Dick's" is an actual, real sporting goods store.

**Author's Note:**

>  _Thank you to my lovely amazing friend Alex for the editing help!!_  
>  Also I sometimes doodle things for my fics! I've even got a link to the ones for this fic on [tumblr](https://kagapop.tumblr.com/synthesis)!


End file.
